By Ruzanna Stepanian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Amid opposition allegations of foul play, Armenia’s ruling party hastily pushed through the parliament on Tuesday, April 7, legislation that banned billionaire Samvel Karapetyan from giving his name to his alliance expected to be one of the main contenders in upcoming parliamentary elections.
The National Assembly approved relevant amendments to the Armenian Election Code in the first reading only several hours after they were made public by senior deputies representing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party. The most important of them stipulates that party alliances running in national or local elections cannot be named after persons.
The amendments were briefly debated under a so-called “urgent procedure” allowing their full passage within just 24 hours. The debate came one week after Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia party and two other, little-known opposition parties officially set up an alliance for the elections slated for June 7. They named it Strong Armenia With Samvel Karapetyan.
Civil Contract parliamentarians denied any connection between that development and the last-minute change to the Election Code. Their opposition colleagues dismissed those assurances.
Meanwhile, Strong Armenia leaders and activists picketed the parliament building in Yerevan to protest against what they denounced as a government attempt to make it harder for their opposition force to defeat the Civil Contract in the elections. Most opinion polls cited by Armenian media in recent weeks suggest that Karapetyan and his political team will be the ruling party’s number one challenger.
